Which Airline Fees Does Your Travel Rewards Program Cover?

If you’re new to booking flights on travel points, you may end up being disappointed when you learn that you still have to pay for taxes and other fees with cash. Most fixed-point level travel rewards programs don’t include taxes, but some of them do. Before you go all-in on a rewards program, it’s important to understand how they work since you’ll likely want to apply for a travel rewards credit card that will help you maximize your earning potential. Which fees are covered by Aeroplan, AIR MILES, Aventura, Avion and WestJet? See below:

You cannot use your WestJet Dollars to pay for fuel surcharges, taxes and other fees

Fuel surcharges, taxes and other fees must be paid for with cash

As you can see, AIR MILES is the only travel rewards program (of Aeroplan and AIR MILES) that includes fuel surcharges in their fixed-mile amount for certain flights. However, over the years, AIR MILES has increased the miles required for flights within North America so you may not actually be getting good value.

AEROPLAN may be more appealing, but Air Canada already announced that they’re pulling out of the program in 2020, so you may not want to collect those points unless you can use them fast.

WestJet Rewards has improved their tiers recently but the value of WestJet Dollars remains the same at a 1:1 conversion ratio. Although you can only redeem them on the base fare, there’s just a minimum redemption of $25 which you can use at any time.

Things get interesting when you start looking at rewards programs offered directly from one of the big banks. CIBC Aventura is one of the few programs that allows you to pay for your base fare, taxes, and fees with points which is obviously appealing. Despite the fact that RBC Rewards only allows you to pay for the base fare, it’s still a decent program and their credit cards offer good insurance

The key point to remember with all of these programs is that, no matter which credit card you decide to use, you will never really get a full free flight, as there will always be taxes and other fees on top of it. That doesn’t mean these aren’t some of the best credit cards in Canada – it just means you should do your research before you sign-up.

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